In Which I Turn on the Oven

Folks, as we speak, there is a butternut squash (yes, the same one from the farmer's market on Saturday) baking in the oven, carefully halved and placed with the insides facing down, as per the instructions in my basic Better Homes and Gardens Cookbook.

As I was sawing into said squash, undoubtedly using the wrong knife, I thought, how is it that I am going to be, well, pretty old, on my next birthday, and I have not, in all these years, cooked a butternut squash? Then I thought, well, never mind, better now than never. Cooking butternut squash is making me feel connected to my mother, who liked to cook and eat those kinds of vegetables, and to the fact that we are in a specific season, and that season is autumn. And scooping out the seeds connected me to some long-ago memory of carving a pumpkin. I must have done that with my mother, although I don't really remember.

Although I haven't officially joined the blog-every-day-in-November crowd, I am inspired by them, I think, and feel like blogging more frequently would be a good thing. So we'll see.

Since it is November, with Thanksgiving just a bit more than a week away, here is what I am grateful for today:

*health--mine and my family's

*the fact that I can still talk to my brother, tell him what is going on with me, and he understands and responds

*the ability to earn my living

*good friends

*crisp fall days and the ability to enjoy them

*nice, supportive colleagues in both of the places where I work

*the eighteenth century

*whatever it was that I was thinking to myself that had me laughing as I was coming off the subway this morning